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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 0031.PDF
NWJT"M Note: Commercial jets >60,000lbs, non-CIS _ 2.00 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01* FLIGHT * projected "7Z.1ZZZZZLZ, Boeing MD-87 and a Cessna Citationjet, in which all 114 people on board the aircraft were killed, has already focused the atten tion of Europe's safety authorities on the issue of runway incursion (Flight Inter national, 16-22 October 2001). The hazard has already been recognised by the USA, and is high on the Federal Aviation Administration's action list. Europe has started by collecting data on all runway incursion incidents to help judge the nature and extent of the prob lem. As soon as this is better defined, European hub airports will probably be compelled to install surface movement detection systems, as in the USA. This would enable air traffic controllers to detect aircraft taxiiing in the wrong direc tion before safety is affected. The Linate crash, caused by a pilot not taxiing on the correct route, occurred after an old surface movement radar had been removed before its replacement was ready. Unknown cause The cause of the crash of an American Airlines Airbus A300-6O0 soon after take off from New York Kennedy on 12 November is still unknown. Certainly the vertical tail fin and the engines had detached before the aircraft hit the ground, but it is not yet clear why the fin broke away. The engines probably separated after the aircraft went out of control. The inves tigation has now moved to NASA's Langley laboratories, where materials specialists hope to determine whether the all-com posite fin failed under stresses beyond its design strength - though the flight data recorder has not yet yielded any conclusive information on this point. NASA will also investigate whether flut ter developed in the fin and snapped its mountings, or whether there was an unde tected crack or weakness in the composite material. Whatever NASA finds will be cru cial for aircraft design and manufacture, since primary load-bearing structures, like the A300's fin, are increasingly being made out of composite materials. Finally, the 24 November Crossair British Aerospace Avro RJ100 that crashed on a non-precision approach to Zurich Kloten in Switzerland will raise crucial questions about the conflict between best operational practice and best environmen tal procedures for an airport (Flight International, 4-10 December 2001). In this case, the aircraft was completing its approach into Zurich too late in the evening to use a runway equipped with instrument landing systems (ILS). Noise restrictions prevented its use after 22:00h. Although it was night, with poor visibil ity and light snow, the aircraft was required to perform a non-precision approach using "Europe has started by collating data on all runway incursion incidents to help judge the nature and extent of the problem" The crash of a Crossair BAE Avro RJ100in Switzerland will raise questions about the potential conflict between environment alconcerns and safety a VOR/DME approach. The aircraft hit trees short of the runway; 24 people died. Non-precision risk Irrespective of the accident investigation's eventual findings, the Flight Safety Foundation's approach and landing acci dent reduction task force has already estab lished that serious accidents are between five and seven times as likely to happen on non-precision as on precision approaches. Decision-makers who put environmental considerations ahead of operational ones will have to take more care that they do not raise levels of risk. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1-7 JANUARY 2002 29
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